Month: June 2009

After spending so much time on the brain-numbing Greg Lindsay/John Humphreys Carbon Tax, how refreshing to study a real economist!

With some of my own comments and highlighting of points included, here is Dr Alan Moran, Director of the Deregulation Unit, Institute of Public Affairs – speaking and getting grilled at a Senate Hearing on the Rudd government’s proposed ETS.

Must-read Bonus: Senator Doug Cameron (Australian Labor Party) dresses in a Panda suit and gets shot out of a cannon.

I’m providing these transcripts after coming across a number of misrepresentations of the content I inserted into these videos.

Unless otherwise indicated, indented quotes are of segments inserted into the original video by me.Their exact placement in this transcript isn’t quite accurate since some of the inserted segments rolled out over time while the presentation was going on.

Unless otherwise indicated, the non-indented text is of John Humphreys (Mannkal Scholar/Research Fellow, with the Economics Programme at the CIS) speaking.

While starry-eyed supporters of Greg Lindsay and the Centre for Independent Studies proclaim undying loyalty and admiration for the man who proudly: “… has NEVER personally taken any position at all on global warming,” Australian Senator Steve Fielding (Family First Party, Victoria, Australia) has decided it’s his responsibility to now TAKE a position – by first informing himself carefully and rigorously about the “real debate”.

No, not the one about whether it’s better to wreck our living standards with an Emissions Trading System (ETS) – OR – a Carbon Tax.

It seems every Australian has an opinion on the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme. Green groups have been calling for stronger emissions targets while businesses have been pushing for more assistance to be granted to affected industries. Others simply argue that Australia should be waiting until Copenhagen before rushing ahead with any scheme. The one question, however, that no one seems to be asking, is whether or not we even need an emissions trading scheme at all?

… Perhaps CO2 is not the bogeyman of the climate world as many would have us believe.

… Fielding, an engineer, is now insisting he be shown the proof that the world is even still warming, and the (Australian) Government must at last justify its plan’s most basic assumption.

Its “most basic assumption”? But that’s the one Greg Lindsay and John Humphreys use as their “starting assumption” – cunningly opposing an Emission Trading Scheme for Australia … by proposing a Carbon Tax for Australia. Isn’t it?